Why Web3?
There is something different about “web3” maybe because it has the word 3 in it? 🤔 Well, that’s a possibility 😅. But seriously, there’s something about what word “web3”. I remember the first time I heard about it. It didn’t have the feel of the term “web2” that I was familiar with. It had this different excitement to it, even from the people that talked about it, it has this ring to it and that’s what this article is all about. Why Web3? Why the buzz around Web3? Why the excitement?
Web2
Before answering this question, let’s talk about its “somewhat” predecessor — Web2.
Web2 in this context is the second major iteration of the world wide web which allowed for the dynamic web like we are used to today. Web2 brought about technologies that birth the technological giants we are used to today, the likes of Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon and more. But if all of these existed, what is then the buzz about web3. Why do you hear people talk about web3 as if it something totally different, well it is different. Let’s see how.
Why Web3?
To understand this, let’s try to understand how web2 works. Web2 architecture in the most basic form consist of a server and a client. The server can be one or multiple, in many cases, it is multiple. The client also can be one or multiple, and in many cases also, there are multiple clients communicating with one or more servers. This is the most basic way to view how web2 works. And this architecture has served humanity for the past decades, it has changed our way of living, lifestyle and social endeavour. Web2 has changed us in ways that we cannot recover from. Most of us cannot even survive without most web2 platforms like twitter. Exactly my point. But if web2 provides all we need, why do we need a new web? The simple answer is Decentralization.
Some forward thinkers from around the world some time ago thought about it that there was a need to decentralize the authority and the level of power that belongs to single, central or autonomous parties in various sector of world economies. This way more people can share and benefit from the abundance that exist from technology and guess what? It worked. The first sector that these forward thinkers targeted was Finance through a concept now known as Decentralized Finance (DeFi). They noticed that the financial sector was a culprit of centralized finance or centralized money. These men believed that money should be accessible by and to everyone in every part of the world and the way to achieve this, is to use technology to create a decentralized digital currency that can be programmed to be fair and unbiased. Guess what? This also worked. It led to digital currencies like Bitcoin. This meant that money can be owned, spent and shared at blazing speed from any part of the world to another part of the world no matter the distance and this was done without a central body, without censorship, almost instantly, and of any currency from anywhere in the world. Without anyone deciding how the money is being transferred or how much can be transferred or currency value. It was mind-blowing. This quickly became a success.
But that was not all, seeing that the concept of decentralizing Finance worked in the Finance sector, it opened the possibility of decentralization to other sectors, including art, entertainment, education, real-world assets, lifestyle, technology, gaming, real-world assets, sports and more. Simply put, this “decentralized” way of thinking was about to revolutionize the world. But at this time, the term popularly associated with this decentralization rave was BLOCKCHAIN. The technology behind the ability to create a decentralized solution was powered by the BLOCKCHAIN and the most popular use of the BLOCKCHAIN in the early days of web3 is the popular Bitcoin. But the story gets more interesting from here on.
If Blockchain is what powered the start of mainstream decentralization, where does web3 come in? That was where another popular technology known as Ethereum came into the picture. Similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum leveraged blockchain technology but not to target finance as Bitcoin did, but other sectors in general. The idea for Ethereum was proposed by a man named Vitalik Buterin. He proposed the concept of having programs that are self-executing that run on the blockchain. Because now that the blockchain has proven that it can help achieve decentralization, why not make the process autonomous and bound by a contract? This idea became a reality and known as Ethereum — a blockchain that supports and can run self-executing programs known as smart contracts. But with all of this, the term web3 has not been mentioned yet, right? We’re getting there. It is worth noting that Vitalik conceived the idea of self-executing programs on the blockchain, but there came another man called Gavin Wood popularly known as the co-founder of Ethereum. Vitalik and Gavin brought Ethereum to life with Gavin coining the term Web3, developing the programming language for writing the programs (smart contracts) on the blockchain popularly known as Solidity language but Gavin is most popularly known for coining the term Web3. So, yes, Gavin Wood coined the name Web3, and from there, the term web3 caught on. The term blockchain was no longer the only name associated with the technology of decentralization. Web3 became the standard for decentralized technology and the decentralized web.
And since the release of Ethereum as a stable technology on mainnet (available for users and developers), Ethereum has typically changed the landscape of the web. It really established that the name web3 was not a farce. Ethereum has made it possible to have similar types of application that we have in web2 (such as Twitter, Facebook, tik-tok, google, etc), built as decentralized application (known as dapps) on the blockchain. This meant that you could have a decentralized platform similar to Twitter or Facebook or Whatsapp where one body does not have the sole authority of the platform. You could also program the platform to benefit all users of the platform socially, and fairly with seamless incentives if possible. This thought was bound to entice developers and users and guess what? It worked; developers rushed into the web3 ecosystem to build decentralized apps (dapps) for onboarded users.
The ability to create decentralized solutions that encourage fairness and distribute authority to all of its users is one of the most beautiful aspects of web3. It has led to inclusion from anywhere in the world. It led to the birth of global digital economies that can be programmed to behave like physical economies with the significant difference of built-in fair ground for every participant. And this is not all, there are more possibilities coming up in the web3 space every. And the most important aspect is that the web3 space rewards everybody and I mean everybody.
So why web3? My answer will be: It’s Benefit for Everyone. Although everyone will have their answers and opinions, my answers can be summarised to just one reason — Web3 has tremendous benefits for every person.
I believe you will have thought of what you can benefit from web3 while reading this article and there lies the answer.
Web3 has benefits for everyone and not just one person. Everyone.
But personally, I believe it is still the 3 in the name. 😂
Thank you for reading.